Malik Monk Kicked Off The New NBA Season With One Of The Cleanest Poster Dunks You'll Ever See

Rocky Widner. Getty Images.

Part of the fun of the NBA being back in our lives again is that every night from now until June we're going to be blessed with ridiculous plays. Sometimes it's an insane pass, sometimes it's a game winning three like we saw tonight with the Cavs

and of course one of my personal favorites, sometimes it's an incredible poster dunk. Every once in a while you get lucky and we get to witness a Dunk Of The Year candidate, and I'm happy to report that we already have a rather legit entry via Malik Monk

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Over the years we've seen different levels of poster dunks, but for my money this is about as textbook as it comes. Monk didn't just dunk over his defender, he dunked through his defender. Once Monk got to around the circle he prepared not only for liftoff, but to dunk this right on Kris Dunn's head

Now for this to truly be a special dunk, you have to finish it cleanly. None of this barely dunking or throwing the ball in. I'm talking a clean finish, which is exactly what Monk had. He absorbed the contact and then finished strong as hell, exploding at the rim. That's the part that truly makes it an awesome dunk in my eyes.

Of course, Monk isn't alone when it comes to the dunks we saw tonight. Remember Zion? Yeah he's back healthy and that means he's back to doing shit like this, even over a DPOY

Unfortunately for Zion I wouldn't put that in the same category as Monk's. His was nice, but Monk's is in the Dunk Of The Year group. I'm sure we'll see something better, but it's a great way to get the season started.